


As it Should Be

by choir_of_one



Series: JonElias Week 2020 [6]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Beholding/Inhumanity, Day Six, Jonelias Week (The Magnus Archives), M/M, panopticon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26199607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choir_of_one/pseuds/choir_of_one
Summary: Jon reaches the Panopticon. He doesn't hesitate.
Relationships: Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Series: JonElias Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896295
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47
Collections: Jonelias Week 2020





	As it Should Be

**Author's Note:**

> For Day Six: Beholding/Inhumanity. A little late, but better late than never!

“I’ve been watching you.”

The back of Jonah’s hand gently traced his jaw and came to rest on his shoulder. “Paving your way through the domains. _Our_ domains.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Jon murmured. But he wasn’t angry. Wasn’t even uncomfortable here, among the eyes which feasted on terror. Any signs of tension had melted away at the altar of their God.

The Panopticon. How awful, how terrible, how glorious as it lays naked the terror of the world they’d created.

Jon had come here. Jon had a purpose but that purpose stayed behind at the gates. Basira, Martin, Daisy- all barred from entry, Only the pure could walk over its threshold.

_Shed your Cobwebs. Your Hunter, your Lonely. Come home._

Jon hadn’t been truthful. In all the ways that mattered, yes, he tried to be honest with Martin. He didn’t want to upset him; he loved him, in his own way. 

But every day, since the first unveiling of their Panopticon deep in the tunnels, Jonah had been calling Jon. A murmur in his ear in Scotland, in his self-imposed exile. As he read aloud the words that doomed humanity. As he and Martin roamed the domains. _Dear Archivist, tell me what you See._

And so he did.

Martin plugged his ears, turned away, and Jon became himself. Each domain a love letter from afar, a sermon for his God and his Watcher. It would have hurt to keep it in, and speaking its name was ecstasy. 

_Don’t watch Martin- I’m afraid you’ll see me smile._

He was remade in flames, pulled by the hooks of the spider. He traveled through the fog, desperately searching for his lost love and savoring that loneliness for his current one.

He has room in his heart for both. He is, after all, an Archive.

“We don’t have forever,” he whispered, leaning back into Jonah’s arms. “The End made that quite clear.”

“Shame you think a thing like Death could stop me.” A kiss in Jon’s hair, neither of their gazes straying from the terror laid before them. “But for now, I think it’s time you take your throne.”

The two empty chairs, tall and proud before the Panopticon’s eyes. One for Jonah, black as the sky in the Dark’s hold.

And one for Jon, white and gold.

His eyes met Jonah’s, the adoration behind them clear as he took his hand. Together, they claimed their seat of power. 

The world raged before them. And Jon felt everything- the blood pounding in his ears of the endless chase, the pipes of war, the crush of earth in his lungs, and the screams, screams, screams of his name at the gates below. One perfect channel of anguish for him and him alone.

His damnation is a curious thing- silent and cold at the touch of Jonah’s hand; the fear a balm to his senses, a white noise smothering out the unbearable silence of hope. Of solutions and optimism and fix-its.

Jon Knows. Jonah Knows.

He is never leaving this tower.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, Martin! 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Let me know if you liked.


End file.
